Step 1: Connecting

For beginners, this is the hardest phase, but I'm assuming that you can work around and use intelligence to find out what the statements are (this is not a copy and paste operation!). Well I'll give you the code and then I'll explain it.

DSN-LESS

Dim objConn             'Declare Variables Dim connStr Set objConn = Server.CreateObject("ADODB.Connection")       'Set objConn as an Object connStr = "DRIVER={Microsoft Access Driver (*.mdb)}; DBQ=F:\My Documents\aspaStuff\nwind.mdb; " objConn.Open(connStr)         'Use the object's method passing it a variable

Where to begin? After the declaring of variables we move onto the Set objConn line. The Set keyword is different from doing x = 1, set tells it to be more than a variable (usually an object). The Server.CreateObject tells the server to create an object and call it objConn, ADODB.Connection is an ADO (ActiveX Data Object) Connection, this sets up your connection to the database. Next comes the connStr. This line tells the ADO object what database driver it is using and where this database is. I'm using the northwind database stored on a directory on my hard drive, the IIS version is a little different (See: PWS and IIS ). The final line uses one of the object's methods to open the connection using the variable connStr (to tell it where to look and what to use).

DSN

Dim objConn Dim connStr Set objConn = Server.CreateObject("ADODB.Connection") connStr = "DSN=nWind" objConn.Open(connStr)

You're probably saying - "Hey! This is way easier than DSN-Less!" But if you've read the DSN tutorial, then you'll know better. DSN's can be much better but only if you are sitting at the server and are able to do it yourself and make sure its done right, as there are alot of things that can go wrong, I know, I had a run-in with a guy, where I showed him exactly what to do and he messed it up. But DSN does have better security with passwords if you're going to use one that has sensitive data and works better with SQL Server (Well that's any database server (Access is NOT a database server)).